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Getting in the “Write” Frame of Mind

In my last post, I talked about banishing your inner editor while you are writing.  But what do you do when you have managed to get the editor off the scene and you still find yourself faced with writer’s block?  Or it’s difficult to settle in and write—the muse is nowhere to be found. Or, your project suddenly feels overwhelming and you’re not sure where or how to start.  How do we get ourselves into the “write” frame of mind and avoid spending most of our designated writing time simply deciding on a topic?

Getting in the mood—A ritual invitation to encourage your inner writer

Let’s first take a look at how to get ourselves in the mood to write.  The long standing advice about writing is to make it a daily habit or practice.  The more often we write, the easier it is to pick up the pen—or sit at the keyboard—and start writing.  More often than not, claim authors such as Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, and Henriette Klauser, if we just start writing, the enthusiasm and inspiration will catch up with us. I’ve often found that when I tell myself I only have to write for ten minutes, I’ll end up writing for about twenty minutes.  Somewhere along the line, we suddenly find ourselves in the mood to write.

A helpful strategy that I learned from a friend of mine (She facilitates workshops on inner work techniques that make outer life easier.), is to start activities and projects by setting a conscious intention, such as choosing to trust what flows through you and on to the page or deciding to be fully present (mindful) while you are writing. You could even incorporate this strategy as a part of a ritual to shift you into your “write” (right) mind.

Since it’s the right side of the brain that supplies us with our creative ideas and the expression of those ideas, it needs to feel safe, and preferably relaxed, to do its best work.  It responds to sensory input—pictures, colours, sounds, scents—and symbols.  A simple way to establish a safe, relaxed space for the inner writer to come out and play is through designing a ritual.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate; it could be as simple as stating your intention while lighting a candle in a colour that appeals to you, lighting some incense (or using an essential oil in a diffuser if you are sensitive to smoke), or playing some music just before you sit down to write.  If you do these same actions almost every time you sit down to write your inner writer will soon begin to make the connection that when you carry out these specific acts, it is writing time.

You might want to have an image of a writer who inspires you or a deity associated with writing or creativity (if that’s appropriate for your spiritual path) on your writing desk and spend a few minutes meditating on the image before you start writing.  Or you might have a special pen that you use only for journal writing, or a special tea mug that you use only when you are writing.  In essence, you want to coax the writer out of hiding by providing an environment that she or he will find appealing, so if having a few special objects associated with writing process helps to serve this purpose, go for it.

The Care and Feeding of Your Muse

While it is good to have a scheduled writing time, it’s just as important to be open to the muse outside of “scheduled office hours” and be willing to “take down dictation” if she spontaneously calls on you to share an idea or inspiration. She tends to quietly work away in the background, making sense of your experiences, putting those perceptions together in some creative new ways, and then calls on you with the “sudden” insight or stroke of genius. But if you can’t be bothered to listen and jot down the key points when your muse randomly taps you on the shoulder to get your attention, she’s not likely to take you very seriously nor will she file the idea in your memory for you. Your muse is not necessarily going to appear at your beck and call or only on your terms.  She doesn’t work that way. If you want to encourage her presence, you ignore her at your peril.  The last thing you want to do is tell the muse that she’s interrupting you outside of scheduled writing time.

If you hope to be inspired by your muse on a regular basis, she needs to be fed and nurtured on a regular basis.  I absolutely agree with Julia Cameron’s position that it’s important to stay connected to other parts of your life and interests.  How will you possibly acquire any new material—literally food for thought—if you don’t go out foraging and exploring in life?  Stay connected with people and your other interests in life, get out and people watch or go to museums or concerts or go for walks through a park and be fully, consciously there and attentive to the experience.  Then jot down those notes or impressions in a journal or notebook.   Some of my favourite poems that I’ve written—or more accurately were written through me—have emerged out of activities like hiking or walking through parks and seeing the world as a magical place.  The imagery that comes out of such a perspective is amazing and often paints a vivid picture for someone who has never been to the place you are writing about.

I don’t know what to write about….

If you have no particular project that you are working on, and find that you draw a blank when you sit down to a timed writing practice, or you spend half the time deciding on a topic and the other half second-guessing your choice, take some leaves out Julia Cameron’s and Natalie Goldberg’s books and write yourself some lists of topics that you can fall back on when your mind goes blank.  You might even want to write out each topic on a small piece of paper the size of a business card, and put them in a jar.  Then, the next time you sit down to write and can’t think of a thing to say, just pull a topic at random and start writing. No second guessing the choice: You work with what you pulled and trust that you were meant to select that topic.

Working with oracles and tarot card decks is also a useful starting place to get writing, as I discovered many years ago when I was writing my thesis.  The simplest approach is to pick one or two cards and start writing about the card.  You can either start writing a story about the images on the cards or write a description of your response to the card.  If you choose the latter, it’s not about correctly or incorrectly interpreting the cards according to their standard meanings; the focus is on writing about your perceptions, your hunches, and your emotional responses to the image on the card. If you are interested in working with tarot cards as a tool for writing, you may want to check out Corrine Kenner’s book Tarot for Writers (2009).  If you are more auditory than visual, you could play a piece of music (preferably without lyrics) and write about what the music evokes in you.

I have a project and I have no clue where to start

I hope you weren’t expecting me to tell you start at the beginning. Trying to start from page one and move forward will frustrate the right side of your brain as it doesn’t operate in a linear or sequential manner.  If you have an outline with the list of chapters and sections to be included, just pick a chapter or section that appeals to you or feels easiest to start with and get writing. Still not sure where to start? Write each of the chapters (or sections) on separate pieces of paper or small cards (business card size), put them in a jar or box, and pull one out.  Yup, just randomly choose a chapter or section and start writing. It’s your first draft.  It doesn’t have to be perfect; you just want to get some of your ideas down on paper.

If you have not yet started on your project, but you know what you want to write about, you could use a writing session to brainstorm and come up with an outline for your project.  Henriette Klauser even suggests that you avoid writing your outline in a linear sequence—your right brain will respond more positively to something that looks more like a mind map and less like a table of contents.

If you are writing a non-fiction piece that requires a lot of research citations, it’s easier to have the exact quotes or points in order (whether you’ve copied and pasted them into a document that you can print, or written out your notes on index cards) and close to hand.  The reason it’s best to have the research material on hand and already organized before you sit down to start writing is that if you’re making decisions about what to include or hunting for references you will move back into left brain activity and that’s likely to get your inner editor back in the picture faster than you can say her or his name.

Another option is to write the information that you do feel confident about and make notes in the text where you need to add references, citations or more information; you can go back to and follow up on those notes during an editing session. I am currently taking this approach with a research paper I’m working on and I find the writing flows much faster this way than when I stop to look up additional information or track down a citation just as I’m writing.  Stay focused on the writing and trust that the ideas will come out. You can shape them and support them or reference after you’ve got them on the page.

…and in conclusion:

I agree with the various authors I’ve cited in this article (Cameron, Goldberg, and Klauser) that writing doesn’t have to be a struggle—nor should it be a struggle.  Find and use strategies that inspire you and make writing an enjoyable activity for you.  You just might find that (1) you are more frequently in the mood to write and (2) your muse starts to show up on a regular basis.

Here’s a quick summary of the tips mentioned in this article to help you get in the “write “frame of mind and unleash your ideas onto the page.

1. Create a small ritual that formally announces to yourself that you are officially shifting into right brain (creative) mode.  Consciously set and state your intention out loud for what you want to achieve during your writing time.
2. Feed the muse through regular writing sessions and being engaged in life.  Go out for walks, go to the kinds of events that interest you and pursue your other hobbies from a mental space of being fully present to experiencing your sensory and intuitive perceptions.
3. Try working with visual cues/inspirations like a tarot deck to get started. Pick a card and just start writing about how you perceive the card, or make up a story about what’s going on in the card.  If you’re more auditory than visual, pick a piece of instrumental music and write about whatever feelings or experiences or perceptions the music evokes in you.
4. If you’re having difficulties deciding what to write about, spend some time writing out lists of topics on plain business card stock or small pieces of paper (one topic per card), and keep them in a jar or small box near your writing station.  Randomly pick a card and start writing.
5. If you have a major writing project and you don’t know where to start, it’s okay to randomly pick a chapter or section and start writing. You could easily adapt the strategy above to major writing projects.
6. For non-fiction or research projects, the flow of ideas often unfolds better if you are not constantly stopping to look up references or citations. If you don’t have the reference materials readily at hand, just make a note in your text that you need to fill in or confirm some information and keep going.  It might help to have the information, quotes, references, etc., already organized in the order you intend to write about them and printed out so you don’t get distracted or sidetracked from writing.

Be creative off the page, too.  Have fun creating a ritual for yourself or finding a special object that resonates for you and that you consciously choose to associate with your writing practice. I’d love to hear what strategies readers have used to get themselves in the “write” frame of mind, so please do share your ideas with us.

© Susan Chambers, August 2010

http://www.sdc-sage-editing.com

August 2, 2010 · Susan · 4 Comments
Posted in: Writing process

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